My Reason: Counterpart to Blame
by Brianna Aisling
Summary: I fixed a really horrible typo, thank god. It changed the meaning of an entire paragraph. Beginning generally around the ending of Blame, it is the rest of their lives together from Ranma's POV.


I was nervous as hell.  
  
You'd have been nervous too.  
  
Six months and no word.  
  
Will she come?  
  
I'd been waiting for that moment for a year and a half. Waiting for the moment when I'd get my answer. Yes. Or no.  
  
Six months away changes a person. Living alone changes a person. Well, living without her changed me. I had to fight every night to keep from screaming in pain. It was weird. The pain was a lot like Jusendo, but different.  
  
The nightmares were the worst. I couldn't go check on her. I just had to trust my memory. I've never trusted my memory. The Nekoken destroyed any trust I had in it. I mean what good is memory when you can't remember. Of course, I practically lived off of the memories of her smiles.  
  
Her beautiful, heart wrenching, sweaty palm causing smiles.  
  
God, I love those smiles.  
  
I stood there, hidden, watching, waiting for her to step off that train and become part of my life. I got there early and watched couple after couple greet each other. There was this one couple, old; you could tell that they had lived their lives together. I saw her and me in them. I prayed she would come.  
  
And she did. She stood on the platform, looking around, her brow furrowed. My legs could barely support me. I walked over to her and just held her. I can still taste the salt of her tears.  
  
I took her home and begged her to stay. She laughed at me. I watched her mesmerized by her beauty. We didn't sleep at all that night.  
  
We were married by then though.  
  
She told me that she hadn't told her family where she was. She told of how everyone had behaved. I apologized. I was always causing her problems. She laughed at me again and said that they were problems she would gladly take, as long as she got me.  
  
I had thought I loved her as much as I could but then I fell in love again.  
  
She was the best thing to ever happen to me.  
  
She didn't write home till almost two months later. Her family was overjoyed and called everyday for three weeks. The other girls would demand to talk to us, but she and I refused. We weren't quite ready to deal with them.  
  
Five months after she arrived, Akane found out she was pregnant.  
  
I found out again that as much as you love someone, you can always love them more.  
  
Her family insisted on visiting and she insisted that it was time to face the music. The girls would be joining them. I was unhappy with this, but it had to be done. Because Akane was pregnant, Shampoo was forced to give up her claim on me. Ukyo threw a fit. I had to physically subdue her. I never saw her again after that day, although Shampoo visits whenever she can. She married some other Amazon and poor Mousse never got his heart's desire. He did however move in next door. He teaches at our dojo and is a great friend.  
  
We ran into Ryoga when Akane was seven months pregnant. He's the one I feel the worst for. His heart broke at the sight of Akane waddling down the street, her hand gripping my arm for balance. I could feel the Shi Shi Hokodan from almost five miles away. They say he never had a chance.  
  
I wish he hadn't let it get the best of him. He was a good friend.  
  
Our first child was a little black haired baby girl. We named her after Akane's mother, Kimiko.  
  
Our second child was another girl. She had red hair, and despite my adamant refusals she was named Ranko.  
  
Our third was a boy. We named him Ryoga. Akane's heart was broken after she heard about the death of his name's sake and wanted to honor him. I agreed.  
  
Our fourth and final child was another boy. He was the one to really get into the martial arts. All of our children are trained in it, but Toma was the one to follow in my footsteps. He and I went on long training trips, but never more than a year at a time and not until after he was ten years old.  
  
We got back one day late on our first trip and Akane beat the crap out of me while holding on to him will all of her strength. Then, she spent four hours crying that she thought she'd lost she son like my mother had. I just held her and swore that that would never happen. It didn't.  
  
I live alone now.  
  
Akane died yesterday. I miss her already. Our youngest daughter, the second oldest, visits regularly and has decided that I am to move in with her and her husband. I don't think I will.  
  
Akane was my reason for living.  
  
I lived a long life, a good life.  
  
I'm proud of our children and our dojo.  
  
They will understand and I miss Akane. I keep expecting her to walk into our bedroom and flash me that beautiful, heart wrenching, sweaty palm causing smile of hers.  
  
She doesn't though.  
  
She was my reason for living.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Here it is, the counterpart to Blame. It is (duh) from Ranma's POV. Someone said they wanted Blame done from Ranma's POV and I was like hmmmm.... So here is this. I hope you enjoyed it.  
  
(I had to rewrite this author's note. The first one was like two paragraphs long and consisted of like one coherent thought out of about forty different thoughts. I was in a sad state last night.) 


End file.
